The insertion of an intravenous catheter into a patient's bloodstream is one of the most commonly performed procedures in health care environments today. Such catheters are widely used to infuse fluids, such as saline solution, various medicaments, and/or total parenteral nutrition into a patient. They may also be used to withdraw blood from a patient, and/or monitor various parameters of the patient's vascular system.
Despite their prevalence and usefulness in health care environments, procedures used for intravenous catheter insertion present significant risks to the health care workers that perform them. Particularly, health care workers are at an increased risk for contracting viral hepatitis, Human Immunodeficiency Virus (“HIV”), the virus that causes Autoimmune Deficiency Virus (“AIDS”), and other blood-borne infectious diseases. This risk is increased as intravenous catheter insertion requires disassembly of the introducer needle from the catheter adapter once the catheter is properly positioned within a patient's bloodstream. This process requires a high level of dexterity and physical manipulation, with an accompanying increased risk of exposure to blood and blood pathogens.
To introduce an IV catheter into a patient, an over-the-needle catheter may be mounted over a hollow-bore introducer needle having a sharp distal tip. The inner surface of the catheter may tightly engage the outer surface of the needle to prevent catheter peelback and facilitate insertion of the catheter into a blood vessel. The tip of the introducer needle may extend beyond the distal tip of the catheter to enable insertion of the catheter at a shallow angle through the patient's skin and into a blood vessel.
To verify proper placement of the needle and catheter in the blood vessel, the clinician may confirm the presence of “flashback” blood in a flashback chamber associated with the catheter and needle assembly. Once proper placement is initially confirmed, the clinician may then remove the needle from the catheter and apply pressure to the blood vessel to occlude the vessel, thereby controlling further blood flow into the catheter assembly. This technique, however, is imprecise and may result in blood from the blood vessel exiting the catheter tube through the catheter adapter, thereby compromising sterility of the fluid path and potentially exposing the health care worker to blood and blood pathogens.
The requirement to apply digital pressure to the blood vessel after insertion of the catheter also leaves the health care worker with only one hand available to manipulate the catheter insertion assembly as needed to remove the needle and connect the catheter adapter to the administration set. This requirement thus further increases the potential for human error resulting in blood exposure and injuries related thereto.
Finally, typical catheter insertion practice requires the catheter to be further advanced into the blood vessel upon withdrawing the needle therefrom. While blood control valves exist to reduce an incidence of blood flow beyond the open end of the catheter adapter, such valves tend to impair a health care worker's continued ability to verify proper positioning of the catheter, since blood flashback may only be observed upon initial placement. Accordingly, known blood control valves tend to increase a potential for catheter failure and procedure duplication.
From the foregoing discussion, it should be apparent that a need exists for an intravenous catheter blood control device capable of controlling blood flow to facilitate visibility of blood flashback throughout a catheter insertion procedure, while minimizing a risk of blood exposure from blood spills through the catheter adapter. Beneficially, such an intravenous catheter blood control device would enable simple and inexpensive manufacture, as well as simple and effective operation. Such an intravenous catheter blood control device is disclosed and claimed herein.